1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to golf, specifically to an improved practice putting cup that teaches speed as well as direction.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Numerous gadgets and aids are available for purchase by avid golfers in order to help improve their game. With regard to putting, there are a number of practice cups which may be placed on the golfer's carpet, or the golfer may purchase a piece of carpet or one of a number of specific golf mats simulating a putting green or surface.
Certain deficiencies exist with regard to these available cups. Since these cups of necessity must sit upon a carpet, they require some entry speed for the ball to pass over a ramp or lip. This in itself is not a bad feature since Reference 1 teaches that the ball speed at the front of the cup should be sufficient to roll the ball past the cup approximately 1 to 2 feet in order to optimize a putt's chance of being sunk on a real imperfect green surface. However, the ramps or lips on available cups are not designed for this purpose, see, e.g., Patent Des. 273,126 to Turza, 1984. A simulated putting cup designed to be placed upon rather than into a carpet must be of a type wherein the ball rolls up a ramp and/or over a lip in order to fall into a hole the depth of which can be no more than back down onto the carpet surface. Portable or stand-alone cups on the market are almost all of the ramp type. A distinction between these cups is that they are omnidirectional, i.e., the putt can enter from any direction or they are unidirectional where the putt can only enter from one direction. The latter type can be referred to as planar ramp, “horseshoe” design. Patent Des. 273,126 to Turza, 1984 is typical of a “horseshoe” design. U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,545 to Schindler, 1996 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,006 to Sigunick, 1990 are of the omnidirectional type. While putting from any direction may be convenient, this design has serious drawbacks. Since the putt must travel up a conical ramp, any ball which is not putted exactly on the centerline of the hole will be deflected to one side or another as it rolls up the conical shaped ramp (like the sides of a volcano).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,006 is unrealistic in several areas. The putting speeds at which putts are holed are incorrect because of the severe ramp angle 22 to 26 degrees and the shallowness of the cup, which is ⅜ inch maximum. Thus the speeds of sinkable putts on actual greens are quite different from the speed and direction of sinkable putts using omnidirectional cups. As opposed to a planar ramp, the conical ramp as also claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,545 completely deviates from putting on an actual green as it turns putts not exactly on center away from the cup. A flat cup on an actual green does not behave in this manner. Hence, these cups are difficult and frustrating to use as putting training devices. Finally, with these devices as well as with all others on the market, a missed putt provides no feedback with regard to proper speed.